As a conventional apparatus for measuring body fat, an apparatus employing a caliper method has been used for measuring a skinfold thickness by picking up the subcutaneous fat with a moderate pressure.
In addition, as another conventional apparatus for measuring body fat, an apparatus for measuring one's body weight and body height as well as measuring an electrical resistance between both of one's legs to calculate a body fat percentage from these measured values has been suggested (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-189928). The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-189928 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
However, the conventional apparatus for measuring body fat described above had some problems as follows.
First, the apparatus employing the caliper method described above had some problems of causing pain upon picking up the subcutaneous fat and of bringing about variations in measured values due to fluctuations of the force for picking up the subcutaneous fat. In particular, a thickness of the subcutaneous fat which was picked up by a measuring operator subtly varied because the extent of the force application in an action of picking up the subcutaneous fat was significantly dependent on the measuring operators, so that skills were required for precisely carrying out the measurement.
Therefore, it can be considered to acquire the living body information of the living body with the use of living body information acquiring means of acquiring the living body information such as the skinfold thickness of the living body through optical measurement for example, but in such a case, it becomes necessary to provide means of allowing a distance between the living body and the living body information acquiring means to be substantially constant.
In addition, in another conventional apparatus for measuring body fat which directly measured a height of one's head position in order to measure one's body height, a hold-down part had to be raised above the top of one's head, so that a taller support base was required for supporting the hold-down part. As a consequence, this apparatus became too large to be placed within individual households.
Further, it took a little time to pull off one's socks when measuring the electric resistance between the both legs.
Still further, there was no means of measuring a skinfold thickness at an abdominal region, so that the topical information on the abdominal region could not be obtained.